Major assemblies of 787 arrive in Seattle as Boeing prepares

[Skopjeair]

Shuttled in from factories across the world inside a modified Boeing 747, the final four major pieces of the Boeing 787 arrived in Everett, Wash., last week, keeping the airplane manufacturer on track to roll out the first assembled 787 in early July. The 787's assembly process will be unlike any other large jet, relying on plants scattered around the globe to build major pieces, like the fuselage, wings and empennage, the Associated Press reported. For the most part, the process is working well on the first plane, though Boeing is leaving much of the electrical wiring on its first plane to be completed by its workers in Everett; later planes will have those jobs done by the plane's contractors. Among the missteps last week, part of the plane's horizontal stabilizer arrived dinged, indicating that it had been handled too roughly before reaching Everett. The bulk of the work done at the Everett plant will be 'snapping together' all of the large parts, many of them made out of carbon-fiber composites rather than aluminum. Boeing machinists have complained that the outsourcing of so much work on the plane is harming their trade and could lessen the quality of the finished product, though Boeing disputes those claims. The 787's first flight is expected in August.

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